Rovi seals HEVC integration deal with Panasonic

Rovi seals HEVC integration deal with Panasonic

Michelle Clancy | 13-11-2013

Rovi has signed an agreement with Panasonic to integrate Rovi's DivX HEVC technology into its next-generation digital television and Blu-ray disc ICs. The announcement marks the first licensing agreement for DivX HEVC technology.

The combined solution enables consumer electronics original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to release devices that support streaming and playback of HD 720p and 1080p and 4K UltraHD HEVC content.

"Representing a continuing evolution in compression technology, HEVC is a key to delivering consistently high quality video experiences across a broad range of devices," said Koji Kitamura, general manager of the Solution Development Group, Division 2 at Panasonic. "Integrating DivX HEVC streaming and playback support into our chipsets is very instrumental to high quality video applications and services."

Rovi's solution includes MainConcept encoding SDKs for professional content creators; the DivX Video Service with DivX DRM for protected content delivery for service providers, mobile operators and content retailers across multiscreen devices; DivX 10 software tools for PC-based DivX HEVC creation and playback; and an extension to the DivX Certification program to allow IC and OEM customers to bring to market mobile and consumer electronics products that support DivX HEVC playback.

DivX HEVC Certified Devices will support an advanced feature set for media playback including multi-language subtitles and audio tracks, trick-play track for smooth fast forward and rewind, chapter points for quick scene navigation, and resume playback across devices. To date, over one billion DivX devices have shipped worldwide — representing more than 30,000 unique models from multiple major consumer electronics brands.

"We continue to make progress in helping accelerate HEVC adoption across the video ecosystem," said Kanaan Jemili, senior vice president of product management at Rovi. "Rovi has delivered tools to help consumers and professionals create HEVC content, and now with this agreement, we are bringing HEVC streaming and playback capability to the IC ecosystem to support the next-generation entertainment experience."